Preserving the Faithful

"The Mujahideen carried out a meticulous vetting process at the mall and have taken every possible precaution to separate the Muslims from the Kuffar before carrying out their attack."
Al-Shabab

Now affiliated with al-Qaeda which has certain scruples that it insists affiliates respect, al-Shabab has done its superficial recognizance in fulfilment of the articles of faith that reflect Islamic heritage. Muslims do indeed kill, slaughter, maim, assassinate, attack and murder other Muslims, but this is not a truth that the faithful wish to accept. During the U.S.-NATO invasion of Iraq, al-Qaeda affiliates in Iraq earned the repudiation of its al-Qaeda parent by the depths of its vicious depravity.

During that period, the Iraqi al-Qaeda militias were so brutally engaged they slaughtered Iraqi Sunnis along with the Shiite Iraqis, earning the outrage of the Iraqi Sunni community. As a result Iraq's Sunnis agreed to fight alongside American troops with their own brigades, to counter the presence of the infiltrating Sunni Islamists in Anbar Province, with their Awakening brigade.

"The French and the English are to be treated equally: Their blood and their money are halal wherever they may be. No Muslim in any part of the world may co-operate with them in any way... It leads to apostasy and expulsion from Islam. Accordingly, Ethiopians, Kenyans, Ugandans and Burindians are just like the English and the French because they have invaded the Islamic country of Somalia."
"And so all Muslims must stay far away from the enemy and their installations so as not to become human shields for them, and so as not to be hurt by the blows of the mujahedeen directed at the Crusader enemies. There is no excuse for those who live or mingle with the enemies in their locations."
"The mujahedeen are sincere in wanting to spare the blood of their brother Muslims, and they don't want a Muslim to die from the bullets directed at the enemies of God."
Conference of Islamic scholars, Baidoa fatwas

And so, an element of due diligence undertaken when the 14 or so al-Shabab attackers of the Westgate mall in Nairobi questioned the frantically fearful mall shoppers whether they were Muslim, to spare them from the slaughter. A simple acquiescence was insufficient; one had to be able to recite a Quranic scripture, and to recall the name of the Prophet Mohammad's mother. Upon which proof a Muslim was free to leave the slaughterhouse.

This is new for al-Shabab. Their more typical free-wheeling slaughter made no such enquiries. They were accustomed to attacking restaurants packed with diners, crowded bus stations, busy government buildings, all absent the knowledge of whether or not Muslims were present, because, quite simply, it didn't matter. If Muslims were mingling with the kuffar why then, they deserved to suffer the same fate as the Infidel.

And then came the differentiating qualifications when a conference of Islamic scholars met in the Somali town of Baidoa under al-Shabab control in 2011. They set about to define who was a Muslim and what represented an apostate. It is halal -- lawful, to kill and rob those who 'commit crimes' against Islam. Another document warns Muslims to remain separate from non-believers, not even to enter buildings occupied by non-Muslims.

In a spirit of generosity the al-Shabab attackers of the Westgate mall made an attempt to identify Muslims from non-Muslims. In the process killing 67 people, although the Red Cross claims that 59 people are still missing, and it is possible that the morgue which has just emptied itself of bodies claimed by grieving families will once again become full of the unaccounted-for, yet-to-be-discovered dead.